


Midnight

by gwendee



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Established Relationship, Fairy Tale Elements, Fantasy, I don't actually know what stage of relationship they are in, Loosely dating, M/M, Magic, Magical Realism, Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship, They could be like, They're definitely already friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:21:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25243069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwendee/pseuds/gwendee
Summary: “You should have just told me you were Cinderella.”“I’m not,” Gakushuu says, frustrated, waving a hand around in exasperation. “This isn’t... Cinderella. This is just. An inconvenience.”“Any vehicle you’re inside of turning into a pumpkin at the stroke of midnight every day is more than just an inconvenience, Gakushuu.”Written for Karushuu Week on tumblr! (Prompt: Midnight)
Relationships: Akabane Karma/Asano Gakushuu
Comments: 42
Kudos: 205





	Midnight

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how to write anymore???
> 
> I forgot [Karushuu Week](https://karushuu--week.tumblr.com/post/620552430641430528/karushuu-week-2020-prompts) existed! (horrified noises) Well I knew it existed, but as yall probably can guess I've been less active as of late and I didn't know it began today, to be specific. As I was going about my day today my brain suddenly said "hey remember Karushuu week? Check it" and I was like huh okay but some subconscious part of my brain must have remembered something because I saw the dates and did a gasp. (Gasp)
> 
> But here it is! A silly idea I thought of that very very loosely jumps off the prompt "Midnight" for day 1, and that's about it, really. 
> 
> This is an urban fantasy/magical realism (you know I love those) settings that is... Very Different to anything of the genre I've written before. Hope yall like it!

[ **Karushuu Week** ](https://karushuu--week.tumblr.com/post/620552430641430528/karushuu-week-2020-prompts) **2020 Day 1:**

**Midnight**

“You should have just told me you were Cinderella.”

“I’m not,” Gakushuu says, frustrated, waving a hand around in exasperation. “This isn’t... Cinderella. This is just. An inconvenience.”

Karma and Gakushuu are sitting down on the side of an empty road in the middle of the night, an hour away from either of their destinations.

“Any vehicle you’re inside of turning into a pumpkin at the stroke of midnight every day is more than just an _inconvenience_ , Gakushuu.”

“This is why I said we should have left earlier.”

“I thought you were just being a stickler about your curfew or whatever! Not because my car would _turn into a pumpkin_.”

Karma shoves his car in Gakushuu’s face. At present, it’s a small misshapen lump of a gourd that’s not getting them home.

“It’d turn back tomorrow,” Gakushuu says awkwardly. “Just let it, uh, have space.”

“Oh my god,” Karma throws his hands into the air. “We have to wait until _tomorrow_ to get home?!”

“We could have taken public transport.”

“I don’t even know where the hell we are. I don’t think any sort of public transport comes by here”

“I told you to take the exit right just now. We could have gone into town and caught a bus there.”

“We wouldn’t have made it back before midnight.”

“It’s only vehicles I’m in that turn at the stroke of midnight. Once it’s 12:01, the cars are free from my wrath. That’s also why I asked you to stop just now so I could get out.”

“I wasn’t going to stop in the middle of nowhere for you to _take a breather_. You should have just told me the reason!”

Gakushuu shrugs. “Well, we’re here now.” He glances over at Karma, who’s still staring sorrowfully at the vegetable. “You don’t think you could summon an army of rats to take us home?”

“First of all, ew, gross. Second of all, my pan flute’s in the back of my car.” And he gestures angrily to the little pumpkin again.

Gakushuu sighs. “I’ll call my father.”

One harrowing phone call later (which consisted of fifteen minutes of Gakuhou laughing at the both of them), Karma and Gakushuu go back to staring at each other.

“So,” Karma says. “You’re Cinderella.”

Gakushuu rolls his eyes heavenward. “Yeah.”

“Why don’t you just tell people?”

“Because when you get a romance-based fairy tale tied to your name, it’s annoying,” Gakushuu slumps. “You remember what happened to the girl who told people she was Belle’s Beauty and the Beast.”

“Oh yeah.” Karma remembers that. She quickly transferred schools and hopefully kept a better handle on her secret this time. “Every boy in a two mile radius tried to kiss her to unlock their true hotness or whatever?”

Gakushuu rolls his eyes. “Yeah. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of people trying to take my left shoe to make me fall in love with them. It doesn’t work that way.”

Karma snickers. Gakushuu kicks him.

“Hey, turning vehicles into pumpkins is a cool power,” Karma says, nudging Gakushuu in the thigh. “You can enact a lot of inconvenient revenges on your enemies. Better, considering no one knows who you are! All I do is play the pan flute and make rodents dance or whatever.”

Gakushuu cocks his head. “What about other instruments or animals?”

“Nah, I'm just a one trick pony. It’d be much cooler if I could summon a whale though. Or a giraffe.” Karma looks over to survey Gakushuu again. “Hey, Cinderella kind of suits you. You’re both blonde.”

“Hair color is not the precursor to any of this,” Gakushuu says. “Wasn’t your friend Rapunzel? The one with blue hair?”

“Nagisa? Oh, yeah. If his hair grows long he can use it to make a ladder or something, and he has a mother who wants to lock him up forever. Pretty fitting.” Karma thinks. “Hey, do you have a step-mom? Or step-siblings?”

Gakushuu rolls his eyes. “I don’t.”

“For the best,” Karma says. “Your dad fits the evil step-mom stereotype well enough on his own, anyways. Hey, what’s your dad?”

Gakushuu shakes his head. “Nope.”

“Aww, tell me!” Karma whines. “I’ll tell you my parents’. My mom was Aladdin and my dad was the Little Mermaid.”

“I’m still not telling.”

“Come on!” Karma whines. “You got me stuck in this mess. At least keep me entertained with fun little tidbits about your life.”

“I have glass heels at home,” Gakushuu offers.

Karma perks up. “Really? Now those I have got to see.”

“They’re not magic or anything. My father got it for me as a prank gift. I can’t walk in them.”

“Yeah,” Karma laughs. “You’ll probably trip and lose a shoe.” 

Gakushuu smacks him.

“I have like, twenty pan flutes at home. My parents get one for me for every country they go to. The different aesthetics don’t really have an effect, but they look pretty, I guess.”

“How are they doing?”

“My parents?” Karma looks up into the sky. “Pretty okay. They like travelling a lot… That’s what happens when both their fairy tales are based on exploring the world. I’m glad they have compatible story lines, if anything.”

Gakushuu hums. “My dad’s Rumpelstiltskin.”

Karma blinks. “That… makes sense?”

“Yeah, communicating with him is hard. He goes into all this stupid tangents and riddles and whatever. It’s pretty second-nature to him but I don’t want to play mind chess when I want him to pass the salt.” Gakushuu looks into the distance, seemingly recalling something, then smirks a little wickedly. “You know that whole thing in middle school where I never called him Father? Just addressed him as Principal?”

Karma looks delighted. “Was that you being an asshole?”

“Hell yeah. I mean, calling him Father is not technically calling him by his name - which, before you ask, does get him really irritated. But you know, it’s along the same lines of me not addressing him personally. And then he decided not to call me by my name too, because he’s petty like that.”

A comfortable silence lapses between them. Gakushuu sighs, and rests his head on Karma’s shoulder. Karma flicks his fringe out of his forehead.

“This is nice,” Karma says. “Thanks for agreeing to go to that party with me, even though I know you’d rather be boring and do homework.”

“Even if your car turned into a pumpkin?” Gakushuu says.

“I’d never had my car sit in my lap before,” Karma laughs. “It’s a novel experience. And yes, even if my car turned into a pumpkin.”

Gakuhou’s car pulls up next to them. He looks amused when Karma straps the pumpkin into the middle seat between him and Gakushuu.

“How was the party?”

“It was fine,” Gakushuu says plainly.

“There was a Jack from the beanstalk who climbed up the staircase from the railing and he was drunk so tripped over the top floor so he had to be taken to the hospital,” Karma says.

Gakushuu turned to look at him. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. You were in the other room with the Red Riding Hood girl.”

“The dog kept following her around, okay? I had _priorities._ ”

Gakuhou drops Karma off at his place first. Karma unbuckles the pumpkin and pats it once more for good measure. “Hey, if I break the pumpkin, will it hurt my car?”

Gakushuu pauses, thinking. “I actually don’t know. Want to try?”

“Nah,” Karma says. He sets the pumpkin down and kicks it gently, so it rolls and settles in the middle of the garage. “Thanks for the ride, Gakuhou.”

Gakuhou’s eye twitches. 

“Oh, one more thing.” Karma quickly leans down, tugs at Gakushuu’s shoelace, and yanks his left shoe off his foot. Gakushuu lets out an unholy squawk and kicks in Karma’s direction, but Karma jumps out of his way. 

Gakushuu’s face is burning bright red. He’d gotten himself tangled in his seatbelt in his haste to get his shoe back. “Karma Akabane!” He shrieks. “You devious, malicious, evil-”

“Bye!” Karma says brightly, and shuts the door. He waves as the car pulls out of his driveway, where he can still see Gakushuu spluttering and flailing through the window. 

His phone dings a few seconds later.

“Fuck you.” And before Karma can reply, a second text comes through. “Is this your way of asking me out?” 

Karma hums. “Did it work?”

The typing bubbles appear, disappear, and appear again. Then, 

“Yeah.

But DON’T let it get to your head.

Just this once.

I want my shoe back.”

Karma laughs. “I’ll drive by tomorrow.

Once my car exists again.”

“Shut it.”

“Would you rather I have rats deliver your shoe?”

“See you tomorrow.

By the way my father is going to make you sign your firstborn to him.”

“Bummer,” Karma types, grinning. “Too bad I’m gay.”

**Author's Note:**

> Before you ask, I don't actually know what instrument the pied piper plays. I don't think it's a flute, but the first google result didn't tell me the answer and I can't quite muster enough effort to click the second.
> 
> (Edit: Okay thank you to Opalserpent for letting me know that the Pied Piper plays the pan flute. Well to be specific I finally googled it and realized that he plays the flute, the pan flute or a pipe, depending on which version of the folklore you stumble upon. And honestly I liked the idea of Karma playing a pan flute better than the flute or a pipe so he plays the pan flute now.)
> 
> I'm not sure if I can't hit all the prompts for [Karushuu Week](https://karushuu--week.tumblr.com/post/620552430641430528/karushuu-week-2020-prompts) on time but I'd certainly try! You can check out the prompts and the other works using the link to the tumblr above and I hope to see some of the other stuff that you guys might create ;) ((Before you ask again nope I'm not involved in the organization of Karushuu week. I'd be a terrible organizer if that were so.))


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